Perhaps the most controversial Cabinet pick, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., faces a contentious hearing on January 29th for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Many on the political left resent his blatant criticisms of the Democratic party, to which he belonged for decades, and his skepticism of the current American health system. Some on the political right point out his pro-abortion stances, drawing a clear line in the sand and refusing to support a former Democrat who does not fully endorse the pro-life cause. While the Senate Finance Committee raises these issues, the rest of us in the general public may find ourselves caught between the criticisms, wondering if he is the right man for the job.
As an unwaveringly pro-life, conservative, Christian woman, I can unequivocally offer that yes, he is. Not only is he qualified, but he is the absolute best choice that this administration could possibly make.
I know this due to the personal impact that the issues he raises have had on my life.
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In the space of six months in late 2023 and early 2024, I lost my first three children to recurrent miscarriage. The devastation of this cannot be understated. After the third loss, and after having experienced a complete failure of care and lack of answers from the American medical system, I began to explore functional and holistic alternatives, undergoing comprehensive testing of hormones, gut health, inflammation levels, and more, in an effort to discover why I couldn’t carry children to term — a heartbreaking problem that millions of American women find themselves encountering.
The results shocked me. I thought I was a healthy person, with normal vital signs, weight, and energy. Instead, I found that my hormones were imbalanced, my gut health deteriorated, and I had the genetic factor common to about 40% of Caucasian women that fails to regulate homocysteine levels resulting in the inability to process folic acid, a critical input to fetal growth. All of these factors have serious impacts on prenatal development. None of these factors had been mentioned to me by my doctors.
These revelations, rather than discouraging me, made me feel both curious and empowered. I am a researcher by trade and so I began to read, listen, and analyze, searching for data and exploring how the body works and what impacts health so significantly that it can cause the inability to bring children into the world. What I found was so simple and yet so life-changing. In essence, everything I had been told by mainstream health culture was not only wrong but deeply, deeply damaging. I believed common falsehoods such as:
“Fat and cholesterol are dangerous.”
“Intermittent fasting doesn’t harm hormones.”
“Raw milk is harmful.”
“Processed foods are fine.”
“Seed oils don’t cause inflammation.”
“Artificial dyes, sugars, and additives don’t have an impact on gut health.”
At the same time, RFK Jr. was campaigning for president. I had not paid much attention to him previously, but in the course of my research, I began to hear pieces of what he and his running mate Nicole Shanahan were saying. They advocated for many non-mainstream concepts, including education on the toxicity of our country’s food systems, the vital importance of informed medical consent, and the oligarchic political power and immunity from liability of pharmaceutical companies.
Both RFK Jr. and Nicole Shanahan approached these claims not from a position of rebellious conspiracy, but from years of intensive research and field experience. They had nothing to gain; in fact, they had everything to lose in standing by their viewpoints — reputational damage, societal ostracization, and smear campaigns from the wealthy, powerful industries that they oppose. But they persisted — driving home again and again that we as Americans are facing a chronic disease crisis, driven by social misinformation, an entrenched medical industry, a broken food system, and a lack of regulations around toxic materials.
No one besides RFK Jr. has so clearly and unwaveringly committed to resolving this chronic disease crisis, and having experienced the crushingly devastating effects of it, I now trust no one so much as the one man whose singular focus is to reverse the trajectory of deteriorating health and quality of life for millions of other Americans. Resolving this crisis will have countless effects on our country, due to improved mental health (which then affects issues such as gun violence, bullying, relationship building, education achievement, and incarceration rates) and improved physical health (which then affects issues such as military readiness, population decline, health insurance costs, and workforce development).
But what of my pro-life convictions?
My position has always been clear on this issue in anything I have written or said to the public. I believe (rather, I know) that life begins at conception. Abortion is the worst human rights abuse of our current era. The miscarriages I experienced only added to these convictions. I heard the heartbeats, knew the little lives, and valued those human beings.
During primary elections, I always vote for the candidate who espouses the belief that life begins at conception and whose track record exemplifies this. I think it is incredibly important for each person to select the candidate that most aligns with their values. During the general election, I voted for President Trump, with the knowledge that his position is that states should decide on abortion restrictions. While I disagree with this as much as I disagree with any policy that says that states should decide whether or not murder is a crime, I much prefer President Trump’s position over the alternative, which would have promoted abortion up until birth (and beyond, as just indicated by the fact that all Senate Democrats opposed the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which would have required doctors to provide life-saving care to children born alive during a botched abortion).
RFK Jr. aligns with President Trump on this issue and has pledged that as Secretary of HHS, he will act consistently with this philosophy. It is understandable that with his background of promoting individual autonomy, personal health, and medical freedom, he would have the perspective that it is a woman’s choice to abort (although to those of us who see the obvious truth that there are two humans involved in an abortion decision, we completely disagree with him). The reality of the situation is that President Trump won the election, and while hopefully in the future we will have more pro-life advocates in all branches of government, the best-case functional scenario for this nomination is someone who aligns with President Trump’s view of abortion.
Lastly, some conservatives have raised objections to RFK’s former work — specifically, his positions on the environment. I find, though, that aspects of his concern for the environment are actually shared by many conservatives as well, especially those in younger generations. In addition, it is his deep knowledge of environmental toxins that informs many of his viewpoints on how specific toxins impact the body. For example, his work in cleaning up the Hudson River of excess mercury led to his expertise on the toxicity of the heavy metal and its use in medical products available to Americans. To me, his environmental knowledge is an asset, not a liability, in the specific field to which he is being appointed.
I am now in my third trimester of carrying a fourth child. He is healthy and growing normally. Due to my testing and research and the advice of functional medicine practitioners, I was able to implement better holistic health protocols involving food and herbal supplements that radically transformed my health. The damage was reversed and God used this experience in my life to teach me countless lessons, for which I am incredibly grateful. As an unwaveringly pro-life, Christian, conservative woman, I sincerely hope that our Senate advances RFK Jr.’s nomination and that he is appointed as our next Secretary of HHS.
He has expanded the minds of millions already to some of the most critical issues facing our country, and the result of his nomination would be a multi-generational restorative impact on mental and physical health, a reduction in our country’s grotesquely bloated health costs, and increased transparency and accountability for both our government’s institutions as well as large pharmaceutical corporations. We have much work to do in this field, and he is the man to do it.
Anna Pingel is a policy director, novelist, editorial writer, mother, and enthusiast over all things holistic health.
